No master volume. High gain. 50 watts. A frighteningly powerful rock and roll machine. It has two volume/gain pots, for the high and low frequency inputs, which can be jumped together. I plugged in, hit a chord, turned the HF volume up to 2 and nearly pooped because it was so loud. Al is of the opinion that this amp sounds best when it's turned up at least halfway. While I don't doubt that at all, I am forming my own opinion that classic Marshalls are designed so that even well before the power stage starts throbbing, the magic is already there in the preamp. That mud-resistant crunch and bite is there from the start and just gets better with additional volume. Something I can't get a handle on, which comes bundled with the cranked Marshall through a 4x12, is the THUMP. It feels like I'm trying to shingle a house with a 16 pound sledgehammer. The day after trying the 1987x at Fluid, I went to L&M and plugged into the DSL100. Afterwards, I thought of something Dean Roberts said to me a couple of years ago when he was checking out the Vintage Modern. "I'm starting to think maybe I just don't like Marshalls". He has obviously figured out that he does indeed like Marshalls, and rocks it very hard and sounds great. But myself, with the way I play and what I want to hear coming out of the speakers, Marshalls don't do it for me. Sorry.

Scott DeVarenne wrote:Afterwards, I thought of something Dean Roberts said to me a couple of years ago when he was checking out the Vintage Modern. "I'm starting to think maybe I just don't like Marshalls". He has obviously figured out that he does indeed like Marshalls, and rocks it very hard and sounds great.

Actually these days Dean rocks one of these:

So maybe he really didn't like Marshall?

"Volume automation takes time. You don't got that kinda time. You could be getting naked with somebody somewhere." -Slipperman

Scott DeVarenne wrote:Afterwards, I thought of something Dean Roberts said to me a couple of years ago when he was checking out the Vintage Modern. "I'm starting to think maybe I just don't like Marshalls". He has obviously figured out that he does indeed like Marshalls, and rocks it very hard and sounds great.

I found this amp a little hard to get good tones out of. It was capable but you really had to find the sweet spot on it. When trying to get a clean sound, the high end was either to harsh or too dark. This seems like an odd statement to make but there was a really fine line between the two. As soon as I got rid of the harsh high end it wasn't bright enough. I played around with presence and treble and eventually found a good mix between the two. Once I started cranking the amp to get some dirt the harsh high end came back. I got rid of it but wasn't really satisfied with the tone. I don't think I would even like jamming with amp because once I started playing with a other musicians I would try a make the tone better and then would get lost and have trouble getting back to the acceptable tone. As a Studio tracking amp it could be great but I wouldn't use it for jamming.